The university recently announced plans to aim for net-zero carbon emissions by 2040, with a 75 percent reduction below current levels by 2025. Brown’s net-zero goals are a great improvement – but by no means exceptional, given the scope of the ecological crisis facing our planet.

Despite these differences, all these schools are coming to embrace a shared understanding of the importance of centering student voices — which will hopefully manifest in more opportunities for us to make leavetaking more accessible and less prohibitive here at Brown.